For Better or Worse
by Vein Creature
Summary: There's no room on a bicycle for a third wheel. Taka begins to wonder if Miaka is really the one... Were there others before her?


For Better or Worse

_Tantrums and Lovers_

**Disclaimer: I do not own Fushigi Yuugi... Yadda yadda...**

"Miaka! Miaka, I love you! Wait!" Taka shouted after her. She shook her head, continuing forward.

"No, Taka, I won't hear it! I'm sick of you being away at all hours, trying to hustle up cash, for us! I don't see how that helps _us_!" Miaka angrily threw her suitcase into the trunk of her little Camry. She looked back at him, with her eyebrows scrunched together, frustrated. "I love you, Taka, but not like this." Then she hopped in her car and skidded away to her mother's house. Taka put his face in his hands and sat on the front stoop. Why can't his wife just tell him things without galavanting off to her mother's house. These little tantrums were becoming more and more frequent recently. He suspected it was because he was working double-shift to pay their rent. It was hard as newly-weds, even if they saved the world or not.

Now, he loved Miaka with all his heart, but her emotions always seemed to get out of hand. Miaka's small and delicate body was smooth and fleshy. He loved her whole, but she was not the first to be loved by him, but Taka was sure she was the last. He tried his best to forget most of his past that didn't include Miaka. Of course, Miaka didn't know and he tried to forget, but his body remembered. The small of her back, the taste of her skin, her eyes... God, sometimes he saw those sea gray eyes instead of Miaka's emerald green. Taka shook his head. No, he loved Miaka and saw only her. Their love was _so_ important, it saved his life, it held them together. He loved her with his whole being and wanted to protect her forever and ever, but... He loved his first lover with a different kind of love, more of a respect. Even so, He knew he'd never see her again. He was going to meet her that day... but then he met Miaka.

* * *

Tamahome stroked hs lover's hair as she slept. Her blue eyes lightly fluttered open to find herself lying on top of him in his small hovel. "Morning," He greeted groggily with a giddy grin on his face. She sat up, suddenly, with a worriied expression.

"What time is it?" She asked urgently, as her eyes darted around the room. He cupped her face in his hands and stared into her sea gray eyes.

"Why does it matter? Lie down with me." He was so serene and his seductions were so easy to his into. She took a sharp intake of breath. She had clients to attend to. "Li Tai, I love you." She caught her breath. Then let it go. "You're only tired." She assured him, mostly to assure herself. She tore his hand away and grasped it firmly.

"Sou Kishiku, we both have somewhere to be right now. We can't live like this forever… We need money and money takes a job and…" Tamahome captured her mouth with his and his hand began traveling up and down her spine. "And…" But she couldn't seem to find the right words after that. Her voice shook and her knees buckled. Tamahome had that effect on her. She wanted to be with him, always, but it wasn't the Hin's way. This was the way with her mother and her mother's mother. She had sold her soul to the night and there was no going back. The Hin tribe was always on the move. Li Tai pushed him away and finished getting dressed, wrapping a scarf around her hair to carefully hide her blonde hair. No one liked the Hin tribe, and although they almost weren't any left and if there was they'd be in Kotou, anyone would recognize Li Tai as one of them, whether she was in Konan or not. She opened the front door. "Meet me at the marketplace, tonight," She managed to blurt out and then she was off.

Tamahome arrived there and waited patiently at her favorite bar in the marketplace. He waited one hour, two… Then he heard a high pitched scream come from an alley way near by. It was Li Tai. He ran over to find her being overpowered by a man, who she didn't seem to know, who was not Tamahome. Ogre blazed on his forehead and the man cowered in fear and fled. "Li Tai?" He whispered as he shook her lightly. She opened her eyes and she shied away from him, covering her face, ashamed. He saw that she was partially dressed and a realization smacked him like a whip. She was a prostitute. He looked at her in shock. Almost on cue, tears began streaming down her face. He didn't know how she got into Konan, but he had a gut feeling she was coming back.

He looked everywhere for her... Bars, marketplaces, shops… Finally, when it was much too dark for anything, he decided he would look in the desert the next morning.

He began walking across the desert, when he heard a high pitched scream.

"Li Tai!" He ran in the direction of the commotion. He found Yui and Miaka being manhandled. When he looked into Miaka's eyes, he saw the same fear that he had seen in Li Tai's. And Miaka was beautiful and the pang of Li Tai, slowly faded… Although, in the back of his mind, Li Tai was always there.

* * *

Taka shook his head. He was Taka, not Sou Kishuku or Tamahome, anymore. He lived in Tokyo, not Konan. He missed Konan... but, he heard, that some of the other Seshi did reincarnate to this world. Hotohori was now Andy Law, the pop singing sensation in China and Nuriko was his most devoted fan _girl_. Mitsukake was famous for saving the Prime Minister of Canada from a near-death situation in the operating room and he was happily married to Shouka with their son, who ended up to be Chiriko. He knew all of this from watching the news from time to time... but, as for Tasuki and Chichiri, he didn't know.

He buried his face in his hands and sat down on the front stoop of the apartment complex, at times like these, he wondered if it was really meant to be between Miaka and he. He wandered up to the third floor, stuck his key in the lock and drifted to the only window in the apartment, facing the thriving city of Tokyo in all of it's glory.

Then he saw those same sea gray eyes looking up at him in the window.

* * *

A/N: Hi people! I know OCs are kind of a leap, but I'm trying it... Did you love it? Despise it? Please tell me! I'll never know your thoughts unless you review! Please and Thank you!

Also, it you like Li Tai, please say so, I know I'm kind of pushing it a little with the Hin tribe and the name... I can make adjustments! The rating may turn to mature as the story progresses... Perhaps! I'm not saying for sure...


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